First Senior Shoot I've done beyond my own Kids

[KatydidPhoto]

This is the first shoot I have been asked to do for someone other then family. This young man was not a "smiler". It made for some odd facial expressions. I'll take any advice you have regarding things I should have done differently.

Thanks!

 

[DanFinePhotography]

These are nice, the guy does not seem the easiest subject but not real sure. The first and last ones are my favorite

 

[mrmacedonian]

are you applying some sort of treatment to his face?

it seems really soft but his eyes aren't as bad as the rest of the face so I can't really put my finger on it..

 

[oldmacman]

Does he have trouble keeping his head still? Everything looks in focus around him, but the face and hair always seem slightly soft.

 

[KatydidPhoto]

Yeah.. this young man's complexion was pretty bad. I clearly need some work on that process. I'll watch myself on that. Thank you though. I will take every bit of help I can get.

 

[Whootsinator]

I hope you didn't make him or his parents pay... Put up the originals for comparison so we can find out if there's a problem with the photography or the processing.

 

[LCARSx32]

They aren't bad, but there's some problems:

#1: If you're going to do a pose like this, I don't recommend chopping off the elbows; at least not right at the corner where you did. If you need to crop them off for some reason, crop it in farther so it looks like it was done on purpose.

#2: I would have moved him about 2 steps to your right so whatever that darkness in the background is would not be overlapped by his also-dark shirt. They run together and become this heavy mass on the left of the photo. There's nothing on the other side to balance it. You may also want to consider a vertical crop for this photo, since it's a portrait and the background doesn't serve to further the picture in some way.

#'s 3 & 4 both have really distracting backgrounds. Consider moving the subject away from the background so it becomes blurred and is less distracting.

#5: Again, his dark hair & shirt are merging with a dark area (the door).

#6 is my favorite of the lot. Some won't like the background because it's a little noisy, but I like the lines. I think it could have been better if whatever is under that sheet weren't there, but you may have no control over that. Watch the elbows!

Good shots, but keep in mind that your sole subject should be the client. It the background doesn't make the client more interesting, look better, or say something personal about the client, then do a portrait orientation (vertical) shot.

Keep it up!

 

[inspire-me]

The last one is my favorite. There is some harsh lighting in some of them, but the last one is nice.

 

[mrmacedonian]

Yeah Photoshop sometimes seems like a magic wand (even has a magic wand tool, no?) but you should watch affecting skin even with a bad complexion. Go into selective coloring and turn down the red spectrum but don't entirely remove the textures because what you get is, well, this.

p.s. use the lasso to outline the eyes, then select inverse, then turn down reds, you don't want to dull his brown eyes.

 

[KatydidPhoto]

Whootsinator - heavens no, I did not make them pay. This is just practice for me and I'm quite certain the problems with these are all me.

LCARSx32 - You provided such complete specific information, I thank you so much!

mrmacedonian - Thank You! I will work on those processes

inspire-me, oldmacman & DanFinePhotography.. Thank you all as well.

I'm 45 and just now finding time to pick up a camera. It's just a nice escape from everyday life. If I can take one good shot out of 50 bad ones, I'll still find joy in it.

I appreciate everyones input, Thank you!

 

[mrmacedonian]

If I can take one good shot out of 50 bad ones, I'll still find joy in it.

:thumbup:

THE attitude to have with this hobby!

 

[Whootsinator]

Whootsinator - I'm quite certain the problems with these are all me.

Yes, the problem is definitely something you're doing (cameras and photoshop don't USUALLY make mistakes on their own), but post an original or two so we can see how bad your processing method really is or is not affecting the image.

 

[KatydidPhoto]

Ok here is the original of the last of the 5

 

[mrmacedonian]

Alright, here are two quiiick edits.

#1 (Left) - I used the PATCH utility to patch out the complexion issues but leave it a lot more texture in the face.

#2 (Right) - I used a Photoshopy Plugin - Portraiture by Imagenomics - to take skin and increase warmth by +1, brightness by +1, and softness by +5.

p.s. if you have 1-2 final photos you edit and send me in 16bit .tiff i would be happy to patch and/or apply the portraiture filter i used here, so you can give them as a final product to the non-paying proud parents

 

[KatydidPhoto]

That's alot more natural looking.. I have SO much to learn.. but again, I truly appreciate everything I'm learning tonight.

Thanks for the offer! We just took these earlier today so I'm not completely certain which way they want to go on these. But I will definitely let you know and if the offer still stands I will forward those to you happily! Thanks again!